much of the material taught in this class seems counter intuitive but it will make sense once we get all the way through, so please hold your questions until the end.
principal one: despite the fact that a 100-150nm virion takes around 2 weeks to fall 5 feet to the floor, virions are highly localized. they will not stray more than 6 feet from an exposure source. many have questioned this finding’s plausibility, but the answer is obvious once you hear it:
“because, science.”
this is, of course, exactly how “smoking sections” used to work. (the same was true of airplanes, which, because they have kitchens, also fall into this specialized realm of physics.)
similarly, many seem puzzled by the ability to eat safely while unmasked while needing to mask up immediately when standing.
some have posited that this is because covid is an unusually polite virus or that, like t-rex, it can only see you when you move. alas, both these explanations are, to any trained researcher, clearly fanciful.
the correct answer, of course, is:
“because, science.”
be wary of extrapolation to non-restaurant environments as the laws of physics change and attempts to apply these rules in other areas are unlikely to yield useful results.
this is plainly silly.
of course, this would absolutely work if pools had kitchens, but for obscure anthropological reasons, very few such swimming facilities remain.
it is, of course, fully safe to have food prepared by multiple strangers in unseen locations and delivered to you by other strangers.
widespread belief is that this owes to exacting standards, but as any who have conducted field work in this space can attest, this claim fails to hold up under scrutiny.
the real reason that this is safe, is, of course:
“because, science!”
i realize this is a great deal of material to absorb on the first day of the course, so we’ll stop here for today.
Muchas gracias, Professor Gato, for making it so easy for us! All we need to remember is “because, science,” and we never need to try that exhausting exercise called thinking again!
Years ago, Lufthansa which I used to avoid, unlike other airlines had its smoking/non-smoking arranged fore and aft: non-smoking left hand rows, smoking across the aisle in the right hand rows.
Then came wide-body jets, and with renowned rigid Germanic adherence to rules, the non-smoking/smoking demarcation went down the middle of the centre rows of seats, so if you were lucky enough to be seated in the centre, the person next to you on your right, at your elbow, could smoke. However it was streng verboten for the smoke to come in your direction, and so good, obedient German smoke stayed in the smoking zone and didn’t at all bother non-smokers.
This is just a few steps away to the ends of this charade. Complete totalitarianism
two weeks ago I took my 98 year old daddy to surgery (he got a nerve block and was fully awake) to repair his fractured and displaced olecranon. I stayed with him until he had to go into surgery, then I waited in the large "waiting room" very open and modern, small hospital but dad's surgeon was excellent and quite handsome...
Anyway. I sat in a part of the large room, not close to anyone within several +++ yards. The two overseers at the front desk constantly monitored everyone's mask wearing.
I would have gone out to my car but it was fricking freezing outside. And I needed to be available. So, I decided to eat my lunch... It was 1:00 and I was starving. I had a sandwich that I opened up and I was told to keep my mask on. No one was near me. It was so weird. People are nuts. I took bites and immediately replaced my mask and chewed vigorously. Once, the overseer told me my nose needed to be covered.
What a load of garbage. Is this the future of human behavior?
Later on I took a walk down the length of the very new small hospital on Route 50 in Northern Virginia.... and there was a cafeteria of sorts. I should have eaten there. Employees were enjoying their lunch with their masks pulled down to their chin.
There's a glaring omission in your explanation “because, science!” Last week on Sunday Morning Fauci made it clear he IS science and any criticism of him is anti-science so this needs source attribution or even substitution. Perhaps Websters can change their science definition too.
One more lesson kids and kitties: In 1854 Dr John Snow discovered that people were catching cholera in Soho from an infected well which he shut down.
At the time health "experts" (I hear groans) were convinced it was the gaseous miasma from the open sewers. Work had begun on covering these drains but it was ten years after his discovery before they realised that Dr Snow was correct and it wasn't "miasma" . But then Fauci, Mr Science, wasn't yet born so there was no Science, just "experts".
Despite evidence, Dr Snow was ignored and ridiculed, as most conspiracy theorists should be (until they're right!).
Every other seat at the gate of my flight last week from Philly to Dallas was a no fly zone. Five minutes later we were shoulder to shoulder on a four hour flight.
You are also in more danger of catching Covid on a Boeing 737-900 than on a 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet. On the Boeing, which has 3 seats across, one aisle, and another 3 seats across, you cannot sit in the middle seat. Too dangerous. But on the CRJ, which is 2-aisle-2, ALL seats are full up. At least it was last July when this cat flew.
Also at the plastics factory where I now work they have decided that it is too dangerous to hold our Christmas dinner. Never mind that everyone has worked together all shift, once the shift is over it is too dangerous for the same people to walk down the corridor to where the dinner used to be held.
That pathetic phrase was used by many parents of strong teenage boys - my son's age - while posting pics of them being injected with the myo/peri shots back in the summer. So shameful to force their athletic teens to take them without an ounce of evidence of long-term harm. That was the day when I started unfriending people on FB in order to save my sanity. It's infuriating and heartbreaking.
I never did the "wear a mask when not at your table" thing because it's dumb. Never got any problems from people, except maybe my wife once or twice, but eventually everywhere here (in Texas) just quit making customers do it and only made the staff stand around like drone servants.
Ah, the memories. Lo these many decades ago I was in the first nonsmoking row--right behind, ergo, the last smoking row. So I was of course breathing in the smoke from the smoker in front of me, and when I complained to the stewardess (we called 'em that back in prehistory), she kindly pointed out that that was the smoking section, and I was, as requested, in the nonsmoking...
The restaurant issue is a difficult one for our elites to solve- too many of the population still need to use their mouths to eat, and a billion dollars worth of research still hasn't found a mask that allows that without having to be removed. However, once you get your abdominal feeding port to the stomach, you will learn to love your pureed soy steak and and faux potato.
Tough, tough stuff this Science. I hope the next Gato installment includes information on how this tricky minx of a virus knew to avoid liquor stores but got absolutely vicious at AA meetings.
A friend recently went to speak to the administration at her child’s private school. She said she was deeply troubled by not being allowed in her own child’s school building because she was vaccine free. She can’t see her child’s classroom, use the bathroom, or even chaperone an outdoor field trip. The administrator told her not to worry, the school was working very hard to get everyone on campus regardless of vaccination status for the school’s annual spring fundraiser. Yep.
My local news this am reported that the supply chain problems/ inflation, etc. are all due to the unvaccinated & those who haven't yet been boosted!!!! So if you want the economy to be robust once again, "get the vax/ boosted". This news is from an interview with a "professor" from a small private college who also happens to be a venture capitalist (the only qualifications stated for being a professor, btw).......Wonder what he has $$$ invested in - oh, yes, he's happy Moderna has the solution to it all. Poor kids who pay a fortune to go there for that "knowledge".
I worked in restaurants back in my university days. I can certainly attest to that meme! I always tell my hubby when we are out, never order the special. They are trying to get rid of whatever it is. Of course, in Communist Canada, we are not allowed in restaurants anymore. We did a little overnighter Friday, so we could shop at Costco. The hotel, a lower end of our fav chain, was very clear the if we wanted to use the pool or "dining" area for the buffet breakfast, we'd have to show proof of injections, and they'd give us this little plastic unit to stand on our table and put on our towels. We assured the young woman, we'd not be using either. I then witnessed the next morning, a woman being screamed at from down the hallway by the staff, as she was self-serving at the buffet. That was always the way the buffet worked (even this September), but apparently Omicron means the staff have to serve her. AND, the server had stepped away. If I'd have been that woman, I'd have been mortified. Then angry. Not to mention, she was a racial minority, so not a good look for this chain. Good grief. What a wonderful world.
Wow, yes I must double swimsuit - though our disorganised Council (Ceredigion) have still not opened the local pool. Do you think it best I double mask when swimming, because science, sorry Fauci? He says he is Science. I say I'm Jesus but most tell me I'm talking bollx so I feel an affinity with Fauci.
Professor Gato, in your next class, can you cover The Science that supports infectivity across city lines? For example, Palm Springs CA is all masked up while next door Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert do not require masks. Does the air or the virus differ across city boundaries?
Actually, the answer is “because public health”. Public health is not interested in individual risk. It is only interested overall health metric numbers. Currently, the the health metric numbers are public mobility and vaccinations. Anything that makes life more annoying like masking reduces public mobility and therefore increases “public health”.
Hilarious. And one of my favorites were the curfews! Oooooo! Scary, scary SCARY virus comes out at night! Especially after 10pm. The worst part... PEOPLE COMPLIED.
Little plexiglass walls between students on round tables shared by 4 students in my kids fourth grade class. Anybody ever seen leaves in the wind pile up next to walls because of eddies of air? The leaves come from all over and get trapped there. I suspect the virus does the same thing, concentrating near walls instead of dissipating into the rooms large volume of air.
"The psychological process of menticide so degrades the mental faculties that rational thinking is no longer possible, making you profoundly gullible. In this state, you’ll buy into any narrative without critical thinking." https://principia-scientific.com/the-phenomenon-of-mass-formation/
Love it. "Because science" logic makes all our physics and biology textbooks completely redundant!
Here's another one from our local school... Teachers, staff and contractors who come onto the school grounds have to be double jabbed (it would be too dangerous otherwise), however parents, anyone really, can come onto the grounds to watch a sports event, crowd together in the hall to watch a play, etc., that's OK. BUT as soon as you come onto the property and you are going to get paid - watch out! The virus knows you are getting paid, you are unvaxxed, and you are obviously a mortal danger to the school population.
Yeah, these rules are the equivalent of the parental "Because I said so!"
Follow my authority because you have to prove your ability to follow my authority, not because there is a rational answer to your "Why"? Lather, rinse, and repeat until I teach you to stop asking why.
Muchas gracias, Professor Gato, for making it so easy for us! All we need to remember is “because, science,” and we never need to try that exhausting exercise called thinking again!
Years ago, Lufthansa which I used to avoid, unlike other airlines had its smoking/non-smoking arranged fore and aft: non-smoking left hand rows, smoking across the aisle in the right hand rows.
Then came wide-body jets, and with renowned rigid Germanic adherence to rules, the non-smoking/smoking demarcation went down the middle of the centre rows of seats, so if you were lucky enough to be seated in the centre, the person next to you on your right, at your elbow, could smoke. However it was streng verboten for the smoke to come in your direction, and so good, obedient German smoke stayed in the smoking zone and didn’t at all bother non-smokers.
this is very funny. We are living in a nightmare.
This is just a few steps away to the ends of this charade. Complete totalitarianism
two weeks ago I took my 98 year old daddy to surgery (he got a nerve block and was fully awake) to repair his fractured and displaced olecranon. I stayed with him until he had to go into surgery, then I waited in the large "waiting room" very open and modern, small hospital but dad's surgeon was excellent and quite handsome...
Anyway. I sat in a part of the large room, not close to anyone within several +++ yards. The two overseers at the front desk constantly monitored everyone's mask wearing.
I would have gone out to my car but it was fricking freezing outside. And I needed to be available. So, I decided to eat my lunch... It was 1:00 and I was starving. I had a sandwich that I opened up and I was told to keep my mask on. No one was near me. It was so weird. People are nuts. I took bites and immediately replaced my mask and chewed vigorously. Once, the overseer told me my nose needed to be covered.
What a load of garbage. Is this the future of human behavior?
Later on I took a walk down the length of the very new small hospital on Route 50 in Northern Virginia.... and there was a cafeteria of sorts. I should have eaten there. Employees were enjoying their lunch with their masks pulled down to their chin.
We are living in psychotic times
There's a glaring omission in your explanation “because, science!” Last week on Sunday Morning Fauci made it clear he IS science and any criticism of him is anti-science so this needs source attribution or even substitution. Perhaps Websters can change their science definition too.
One more lesson kids and kitties: In 1854 Dr John Snow discovered that people were catching cholera in Soho from an infected well which he shut down.
At the time health "experts" (I hear groans) were convinced it was the gaseous miasma from the open sewers. Work had begun on covering these drains but it was ten years after his discovery before they realised that Dr Snow was correct and it wasn't "miasma" . But then Fauci, Mr Science, wasn't yet born so there was no Science, just "experts".
Despite evidence, Dr Snow was ignored and ridiculed, as most conspiracy theorists should be (until they're right!).
Every other seat at the gate of my flight last week from Philly to Dallas was a no fly zone. Five minutes later we were shoulder to shoulder on a four hour flight.
BECAUSE, SCIENCE!
<raises hand>. “Professor Gato, do we have to know this for the quiz?”
The two swim suits meme will be making its rounds in my social orbit post haste
You are also in more danger of catching Covid on a Boeing 737-900 than on a 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet. On the Boeing, which has 3 seats across, one aisle, and another 3 seats across, you cannot sit in the middle seat. Too dangerous. But on the CRJ, which is 2-aisle-2, ALL seats are full up. At least it was last July when this cat flew.
Also at the plastics factory where I now work they have decided that it is too dangerous to hold our Christmas dinner. Never mind that everyone has worked together all shift, once the shift is over it is too dangerous for the same people to walk down the corridor to where the dinner used to be held.
But you know, science.
That pathetic phrase was used by many parents of strong teenage boys - my son's age - while posting pics of them being injected with the myo/peri shots back in the summer. So shameful to force their athletic teens to take them without an ounce of evidence of long-term harm. That was the day when I started unfriending people on FB in order to save my sanity. It's infuriating and heartbreaking.
Teacher, teacher, why must students wear masks when seated then? Is it because food absorbs coronavirus because, science?
I never did the "wear a mask when not at your table" thing because it's dumb. Never got any problems from people, except maybe my wife once or twice, but eventually everywhere here (in Texas) just quit making customers do it and only made the staff stand around like drone servants.
Too many questions.
I thought it was fine to pee in the swimming pool as long as you are vaccinated.
Do i need two suits now?
Ah, the memories. Lo these many decades ago I was in the first nonsmoking row--right behind, ergo, the last smoking row. So I was of course breathing in the smoke from the smoker in front of me, and when I complained to the stewardess (we called 'em that back in prehistory), she kindly pointed out that that was the smoking section, and I was, as requested, in the nonsmoking...
We live in a kabuki theater.
As long as it *looks* like we're doing something about what we've been told is worse than the black death, we feel OK about it.
The restaurant issue is a difficult one for our elites to solve- too many of the population still need to use their mouths to eat, and a billion dollars worth of research still hasn't found a mask that allows that without having to be removed. However, once you get your abdominal feeding port to the stomach, you will learn to love your pureed soy steak and and faux potato.
Tough, tough stuff this Science. I hope the next Gato installment includes information on how this tricky minx of a virus knew to avoid liquor stores but got absolutely vicious at AA meetings.
Yes, question here. A bit unrelated. Does the same principle “mine only works if you use yours” of masks and vaccines also apply to food?
I mean, who can I blame that I am getting fatter?
A friend recently went to speak to the administration at her child’s private school. She said she was deeply troubled by not being allowed in her own child’s school building because she was vaccine free. She can’t see her child’s classroom, use the bathroom, or even chaperone an outdoor field trip. The administrator told her not to worry, the school was working very hard to get everyone on campus regardless of vaccination status for the school’s annual spring fundraiser. Yep.
Let’s talk about crowded airports and planes next….😂😂😂
I worked as a waitress years ago, so yeah restaurant food, because science, right
My local news this am reported that the supply chain problems/ inflation, etc. are all due to the unvaccinated & those who haven't yet been boosted!!!! So if you want the economy to be robust once again, "get the vax/ boosted". This news is from an interview with a "professor" from a small private college who also happens to be a venture capitalist (the only qualifications stated for being a professor, btw).......Wonder what he has $$$ invested in - oh, yes, he's happy Moderna has the solution to it all. Poor kids who pay a fortune to go there for that "knowledge".
I worked in restaurants back in my university days. I can certainly attest to that meme! I always tell my hubby when we are out, never order the special. They are trying to get rid of whatever it is. Of course, in Communist Canada, we are not allowed in restaurants anymore. We did a little overnighter Friday, so we could shop at Costco. The hotel, a lower end of our fav chain, was very clear the if we wanted to use the pool or "dining" area for the buffet breakfast, we'd have to show proof of injections, and they'd give us this little plastic unit to stand on our table and put on our towels. We assured the young woman, we'd not be using either. I then witnessed the next morning, a woman being screamed at from down the hallway by the staff, as she was self-serving at the buffet. That was always the way the buffet worked (even this September), but apparently Omicron means the staff have to serve her. AND, the server had stepped away. If I'd have been that woman, I'd have been mortified. Then angry. Not to mention, she was a racial minority, so not a good look for this chain. Good grief. What a wonderful world.
Too funny and yes I remember the nonsmoking sections in restaurants…😂
Still laughing at the fauci swimsuit meme. Awesome post!
Ahhh, what a bright spot in my day! I love me a funny Bad Cat!
Wow, yes I must double swimsuit - though our disorganised Council (Ceredigion) have still not opened the local pool. Do you think it best I double mask when swimming, because science, sorry Fauci? He says he is Science. I say I'm Jesus but most tell me I'm talking bollx so I feel an affinity with Fauci.
Thanks for the morning laugh! 😸
This appears to be the same science (sic) that led car manufacturers to give the driver and the passenger separate climate control systems.
Professor Gato, in your next class, can you cover The Science that supports infectivity across city lines? For example, Palm Springs CA is all masked up while next door Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert do not require masks. Does the air or the virus differ across city boundaries?
Never wear a mask because they don’t work. The more that refuse this silly mandate, the sooner, they will be gone for good. We are @ll ex3mot.
Actually, the answer is “because public health”. Public health is not interested in individual risk. It is only interested overall health metric numbers. Currently, the the health metric numbers are public mobility and vaccinations. Anything that makes life more annoying like masking reduces public mobility and therefore increases “public health”.
Great lesson that ! Specially how polite the virus is. We probably can just ASK it to go away and it will. Taking along all its adorers, even !
Hilarious. And one of my favorites were the curfews! Oooooo! Scary, scary SCARY virus comes out at night! Especially after 10pm. The worst part... PEOPLE COMPLIED.
oh, the science of it all
Professor Gato, thank you! You have explained everything so clearly, I finally understand! It's science! Silly me for not getting that earlier! 😂😂
Little plexiglass walls between students on round tables shared by 4 students in my kids fourth grade class. Anybody ever seen leaves in the wind pile up next to walls because of eddies of air? The leaves come from all over and get trapped there. I suspect the virus does the same thing, concentrating near walls instead of dissipating into the rooms large volume of air.
Virus is also very unsophisticated, only spends time in cheap bars among cheap beer drinkers.
Restaurant science... Kinda reminds me of bistromathics 🤣
Hilarious . All true bc…. Science. Don’t forget the plexiglass
"The psychological process of menticide so degrades the mental faculties that rational thinking is no longer possible, making you profoundly gullible. In this state, you’ll buy into any narrative without critical thinking." https://principia-scientific.com/the-phenomenon-of-mass-formation/
Professor Gato, I really like the swimsuit analogy. I’m going to use it in the future. Thanks, so much.
i am transferring to usf.....
hilarious, thank you
Love it. "Because science" logic makes all our physics and biology textbooks completely redundant!
Here's another one from our local school... Teachers, staff and contractors who come onto the school grounds have to be double jabbed (it would be too dangerous otherwise), however parents, anyone really, can come onto the grounds to watch a sports event, crowd together in the hall to watch a play, etc., that's OK. BUT as soon as you come onto the property and you are going to get paid - watch out! The virus knows you are getting paid, you are unvaxxed, and you are obviously a mortal danger to the school population.
Yeah, these rules are the equivalent of the parental "Because I said so!"
Follow my authority because you have to prove your ability to follow my authority, not because there is a rational answer to your "Why"? Lather, rinse, and repeat until I teach you to stop asking why.
Bad parenting, bad governance.
I laughed out loud! Thanks!
Tangential, but we need to replace school desks with restaurant tables, which repel the coof
I have a question. Is it too late to get a refund on this class for the semester?
How come my condo building used to have occupancy limits on the elevator but have since dropped them in lieu of masking?